Thursday, October 08, 2009

Walker Lives Large as Workers get the Shaft

One of the hollow cornerstones of Scott Walker's credit card budget is based on drastically cutting the pay/benefits of hardworking people in Milwaukee County. When he is not drastically cutting their pay he is trying to send them to the unemployment line by privatizing their jobs. We are not talking about rich people here, just regular people working hard, contributing to society and trying to make ends meet. Yet Walker is demanding that they give up what amounts to 16% of their earnings. For example, that amounts to Walker lifting $8,000 from the checkbook of someone making $50,000 a year. What makes Walker look especially bad is not just his money grab, but him doing it only a year after he gave himself and several underlings massive raises.

Right now he is trying to grab that hypothetical $8,000, but just last year he essentially gave himself a raise that equals some worker's entire salary. When he was first running for County Executive, Walker promised to only collect part of his salary but last year he decided that it was time to ditch that idea. So instead of bringing home about $69,611 a year, he now brings in closer to $119,611. Please correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't that amount to a 72% raise as he was calling for layoffs of frontline workers? Now the very next year he wants to cut those workers take home pay by 16% and send others to the unemployment line? If he feels so strongly about cutting the average worker's take home pay, then why doesn't he lead by example and go back to his original promise?

I'd guess that his 2007 purchase of a new home might have something to do with it. After all, it is worth $122,000 more thanhis last one. Maybe Walker forgot that rank-and-file workers have mortgages to pay as well. Heck, just Walker's upgrade may be worth more than the entire value of some Milwaukee County workers' homes. Walker's new home is nothing to scoff at, at least from a working person's perspective. He now has double the number of bedrooms, double the number of bathrooms and an addition of almost 1,000 more square feet of living area. The new home also sits on over two times the amount of acreage as the old one. I don't think that anyone really cares much about the size and upgrade in Walker's home, except for his awful timing. How can you upgrade your own living situation and massively increase your own pay while you are also advocating totally eliminating and/or severely cutting the jobs of much lower paid county employees?

Scott Walker didn't just upgrade his own situation, over the last two years he was also looking out for his loyal foot soldiers. Last year Walker originally tried to give his Chief of Staff a whopping 26% raise. Although he ultimately didn't get that raise, the fact is Walker did propose it while at the same time he was threatening massive layoffs of regular hardworking folks. When he originally proposed that massive raise he also was calling for a 12.5% raise for up to seven of his administrators.

Apparently Scott Walker has two tiers for Milwaukee County employees. One consists of frontline workers earning a rather modest pay. That tier has to endure never ending threats of layoffs, massive cuts in pay and even the total elimination of their jobs. The other tier consists of Scott Walker and any "yes men" that he deems worthy. Those fortunate few don't have to worry from day to day about how to pay their bills. Those fortunate few get to live large (at our expense) while the rest continually get the shaft.

UPDATE: One Wisconsin Now posted a blog this afternoon saying, "Walker's Public Option on Swimming Pools is apparently to have the public pay for his private pool". This was news to me, and they even have a Google Earth shot of it.

i said public "official"...call him an elected official if that does the trick for you. either way, he is paid through tax dollars and he has been his entire working career. he wouldn't know a normal job if it was "gift wrapped and handed to him".

if he has been sucking from the public teat for so long and giving himself huge raises and huge upgrades in lifestyle while at the same time asking frontline workers and taxpayers to carry his burden and foot the bill, then that is a fair issue. especially when you consider his hypocrisy by cutting everyone else's pay/jobs/programs while further enriching himself and his cronies (with public dollars).

"Well, now the workers know where to go live when they lose their houses."

Capper, you are such a dolt. If you need a place to live, trying staying Mollenhauer's Condo on E. Juneau in downtown Milwaukee. You know, the county union worker that was thrown into a bush at the CRG rally? His Condo is assessed at $358,000, which is more than Walker's.

And Cory, try writing about how a "rank and file" union worker has better home than the guy running for governor. Apparently, those county workers can afford a 13% pay cut.

Let’s see, how can I put this gently…Just because you are leaving a comment on my blog doesn’t mean that I am sitting in front of my computer waiting to reply. I can’t speak for Capper but I would assume the same goes for him, especially since he is celebrating an anniversary.

Regarding your point…even if your info is correct, it is irrelevant to the point that I’m making in this blog post. The issue is not walker’s massive raise for himself or the value of his new home in and of themselves. It is the hypocrisy factor. It is the double standard. It is the fact that he gave himself that massive raise while demanding layoffs and pay cuts for workers making only a small fraction of what he makes. It was because he was upgrading his lifestyle while putting other county employees in the unemployment line. That is the point that I am making here. If you want to make a different point, that is fine, but this isn’t really the place to do it.

First, part of the problem is that you used Walker's personal life to illustrate a point that county employees can't afford as many bedrooms, bathrooms, and acreage as Walker. And yet, we have a union worker in Milwaukee County that owns a better home than Walker, and this is somehow not relevant? Mr. Mollenhauer is not doing too shabby either.

Second, it's not a pay raise when you scale back your charitable contributions. Only a partisan hack would make such an asinine statement.

Walker saved the county over a quarter of a million dollars since 2002 because he voluntarily forfeited $60,000 a year of his annual income. And now that he has agreed to return less per year, you call that a pay raise?

This is no different than giving annual donations to charity, and when you decide to scale back a bit, they write you a nasty letter calling you selfish for boosting your own income.

And third, when you say that Walker upgraded his lifestyle, you are being dishonest. You refuse to recognize and explain to your readers that Walker has sacrificed a sizable portion of his income every year since 2002. Plainly put, the money is rightfully his and always has been. So why concern yourself about whether he wants to keep what is legitimately his?

once again, the basic point is very very simple. walker chose to signifigantly upgrade his personal lifestyle (by use of taxpayer dollars) while at the same time making less fortunate county employees live on less or even lose their jobs entirely. he wanted everyone else to sacrifice while he took more.

You really don't get it. How is reclaiming some of your deserved salary taking more? I would like your explanation. How is this any different than rescinding your contributions to charitable organizations?

Also, his salary is set at $130,000. That is what the taxpayers have agreed to pay. Volunteering to give some of that back is a great act, but not mandatory. What you've assumed is that once an act of goodness is done, not continuing it is wrong. This is a faulty assumption.

Walker's .25 million dollar sacrifice is far more than I've seen of any local politicians. You can't win this argument, Cory. You're just your friend,Liebenthal - another Walker hater.

this is my sixth reply over the last three days on this blog post. each time i have repeated the main points i raised originally. i have tried to rephrase and simplify them which is obviously of little use to walker groupies that don't want to see his hypocrisy. i have no interest in continuing to help you chase your own tail on this issue.

for the last time and very slowly...

1. walker decided to make a promise to voters to only take x amount of taxpayer money for his salary. no one made him do that and he never put an end date on the promise. If this was not merely another political ploy, then I assume that he did this because the county needed the money. suddenly last year he backs out of that promise without a real reason and decides to suck harder from the public teat at a time when things are much worse. it was not charity, it was a campaign promise to voters.

2. while he has suddenly elected to break his promise to voters, he has repeatedly demanded that other county workers take massive cuts and lose their jobs entirely. at the same time he has also given huge raises to the "yes men" in his admin.

3. He largely upgrades his own living situation at a time when he is putting frontline county workers that make much less in the unemployment line. and then bragging about it to boot. not to mention the irony involved in that new property having a high end in-ground pool while he is endlessly threatening to close multiple community pools (thanks to own for revealing that priceless fact).

walker is showing so much hypocrisy here and it is a pitty that walker groupies are so blinded that they are not willing to see it.

yeah, i am a walker hater...so what? i really do hate what he has done to this county and to its people for his own political gain. i hate his lies, doubletalk, and his hypocrisy.

thanks for your comments and for helping drive up my blog's stats, but i don't have any more time to waste on this specific thread of conversation.

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I started Eye on Wisconsin in 2004 before becoming the blog editor/research director for One Wisconsin Now (2006-2008). Now I operate a research firm & detective agency. I work for progressive candidates, orgs, and individuals. I also conduct investigations for law firms and businesses.